Wrestling Professor Quiz #43 (Monday, April 10, 2006)

This Contest is NOW CLOSED and will be archived for the purposes of simple fun.

Answers can be found BELOW. Good Luck.

1. If we liken wrestling to sex, then WrestleMania is the orgasm and April through July are the refractory periods. The thrill is gone, and like any good peak, a valley comes next. Well, that's just another myth in wrestling (like the one about how it goes "in cycles"). The fact is, the Spring and Summer have done very well in the past... whenever there was GOOD BOOKING. One of those years was 1988, when new WWF champ Randy Savage drew very well on house shows against what top heel after WrestleMania?

2. 1987 was an even better year after WrestleMania. A whole new generation of fans saw 70,000+ fans, fell in love with Savage-Steamboat, and were immediately hooked for life. The Steamboat win was memorable, but like every Steamboat title reign, was short lived. Who took Steamboat's IC title not long after WrestleMania 3?

3. The first half of 1989 was perhaps the best ever for the WWF until the Monday night boom period a decade later. There were two, sometimes three house show crews on the road, and all were drawing well. Hogan was packing them in on one end, and red hot heel Randy Savage was packing them in on the other. While this was all going on, Flair and Steamboat were having all-time classics but with a much smaller audience and financial results. Post-WM5 was nothing special, with the most notable event being the debut of Hogan's new top heel foe. He was... an actor. He was even on "Perfect Strangers," one of the most underrated sit-coms ever. But he was big, juiced up, and looked menacing (and terrible in the ring). With Savage and Sensational Sherri by his side, he was a fresh act and the angles were extremely well done. Who was this man?

4. Post-WM6 in 1990 was not kind, as business fell off and Ultimate Warrior took the blame. Some of it was warranted, some of it was not. WWF changed his look seemingly every week, trying to find the right mix. At least they reacted to the business drop-off, unlike today when they arrogantly shrug it off and continue to make the same mistakes. Even with Warrior as champ, the focus was still on Hogan. Hogan's new foe was a guy they took out of the audience who happened to be huge. And he's also tough, as shown by his stubborn fight against cancer in recent years. Name this large man.

5. With the departure of so many stars (and Pat Patterson, the booker) in 1992, post-WM8 was a very trying time for the WWF. The steroid and sex scandals were in full swing, and with no Hogan, Vince needed a superstar to replace him. And when Vince gets desperate, he turns to muscles no matter how much bad blood there is between them. What muscular superstar returned to the WWF at the end of WM8?

6. A slim and trim Hulk Hogan returned at WM9, where he was challenged immediately for the WWF title by Mr. Fuji and Yokozuna. Yeah, that makes sense. If a guy you managed just won a long a grueling match and captured the ultimate prize in wrestling, wouldn't you immediately issue an impromptu challenge to Hulk Hogan? Hogan of course won the title, making Bret Hart look like a total loser. Hogan held the title until losing to Yokozuna at what PPV event?

7. In order to combat the seasonal and traditional post-WM house show business decline, the WWF came up with a new idea: "The WrestleMania Revenge Tour." This tour would have lasers, lights, pyro, and everything a TV taping would have, except it wouldn't be on TV. I attended one of these house shows, and the special effects were nowhere near the hype. After what WrestleMania did the WWF run this revenge tour?

8. I'm skipping '95 through '97, since those were my tough college years and I don't remember much. In '98, the months following WM14 were the turning point for the company, which was red hot following Austin's title win and angle with Mike Tyson. Austin's new foe was... Vince McMahon. The feud worked so well because Austin was hot and Vince had never been a heel before. He was fresh and great on interviews, even though he couldn't wrestle. What event in 1997 did Vince use as the catalyst for turning himself heel?

9. Post-WM17 saw the collapse of the WWF, due in large part to Austin's heel turn. Hogan drew huge money as a face and a heel. But Austin's legacy in comparison to Hogan's will be that he drew more money as a face, but as a heel, the entire industry burned to ashes. ECW and WCW going under didn't help. Which company went out of business first, ECW or WCW?

10. Post-WM18 in 2002 saw the Rock heavily into his movie career. WWE needed a fresh new heel, and fast. They took this guy from OVW, and made Paul Heyman his manager. Yes, he was Brock Lesnar. But Heyman wasn't referred to as his "manager." After all, says Vince, managers are so "'80s." Yeah, and so are big crowds, intense crowd heat, and record network TV ratings. In relation to Lesnar, what was Heyman's title?
-Savage's heel opponent after WM4 was Ted DiBiase. Having been a Savage mark since WM3, I was quite a happy 6th grader during this time period.

-Honkytonk Man took Steamboat's IC title, and HTM to this day will not let us forget it. Well, he did get over.

-Hogan's post-WM5 heel opponent was Tiny "Zeus" Lister.

-Hogan's post-WM6 heel opponent was Earthquake. Speaking of earthquakes, today is the 100-year anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco quake. I just saw a TV special that warned us we're basically long overdue for another one that will turn the Bay Area into a disaster of Katrina capacity. 1989, they say, was just a taste of what's to come. I can hardly wait.

-Ultimate Warrior returned at WM8, but you wouldn't know it from his stupid-looking haircut.

-Hogan lost to Yokozuna at King of the Ring '93. It was Hogan's last WWF appearance until 2002.